Falsi amici (French: faux amis) also known as false friends, are pairs of words or phrases in two languages or dialects (or letters in two alphabets*) that seem to be similar but actually have completely different meanings. One example is “target” and “targhetta”; in Italian, “target” means “bersaglio”, and, in English, “targhetta” actually means “nametag”. The advanced credit class studied the concept of false friends, created their own list of examples, and then found more examples online, which they then used to teach the other credit classes about falsi amici.

The term should be distinguished from “false cognates”, which are similar words in different languages that appear to have a common historical linguistic origin (whatever their current meaning) but actually do not.

*for example the letter “P” in the russian alphabet equivals to the “R” of the Latin alphabet. The “B” equivals to “V” and so on…

Very good article. For someone who has studied entirely in English and now trying to learn Italian, these words are like a minefield. I am guilty of using most of them and have my well-meaning conversations thrown off-track